March 16, 2008

I ran across a good deal on a Donkey Kong 3 machine on eBay. The game doesn’t work perfectly (the sprites don’t show up) now works fine (see 3.19.07 below), the cabinet is in good shape and the monitor works well. I realized right away it would be a perfect candidate for a Donkey Kong renovation.

Looking a little closer at the auction, I realized the cabinet is, in fact, an old Donkey Kong cabinet. It was the Nintendo blue color and still had the original Donkey Kong instructional sticker above the controls.

Initial assessment
The machine is in over all good shape. Here is the initial list of repairs I will need to make to fully renovate it. Click on the links to view images (where available):

- Patch dings on the sides and around the edges
- Patch bottom corners
- Fresh coat of Nintendo blue
- New side art
- Replace white t-molding
- Install Donkey Kong board
- Install cap kit in monitor
- Install Donkey Kong marquee and bezel
- Install Donkey Kong control panel
- Install locks on front door and back panel

Cost
I’m going to keep track of my total cost for the project. I am estimating that my cost for the entire project will be around $550. I will update this list as I incur costs:

- Cabinet – $227.50
- Gas – $50.00
- T-molding – $17.99
- Cap kit for monitor – $14
- Side art – $61.95
- Instruction card and sticker – $16
- Coin door sticker $8.50
- Primer – $10.59
- Paint – (estimating $25)
- Control panel – $32.50
- Marquee – $41
- Bezel – $25 + gas
- DK pcb – $25 + gas
-Misc expenses – (estimating $50)

Running total: $530.03
Estimated total: $605.03

Renovation Log

3.15.08
- Retrieved the Donkey Kong 3 cabinet

As you can see, it’s a pretty good looking cabinet. The control panel, with the exception of sticky buttons, works fine. The most noticeable damage is the large hole by the coin door.

3.16.08
- Removed 1 piece of Donkey Kong 3 side art
- Removed the old t-molding

3.17.08
- Removed other piece of side art
- Cleaned out part of inside of cabinet

3.19.07
- Fixed Donkey Kong 3 board
This was more of a side project since I’m converting to a Donkey Kong machine and did not really care about the Donkey Kong 3 board. But, I did some research and found a repair log from MikesArcade.com. He had the same problem of missing sprites. His solution was to replace the Z80A DMA controller. So, I took a shot. I found one on eBay, ordered it, popped it in today and the game works flawlessly now. I’m not 100% sure what I’ll do now, but I will probably sell the Donkey Kong 3 marquee, bezel, control panel, and pcb as a whole on eBay. We’ll see.

- Removed Donkey Kong 3 pcb
- Removed monitor
- Sanded one side of the cabinet
- Patched dings

In hindsight, I probably should have worn a mask. Lesson learned.

3.20.08
- Sanded down the other side of the cabinet
- Patched dings

Here are a couple of shots of the half sanded cabinet. Looking back, there may have been an easier way to removed the glue from the side art, but I just sanded it off. You can see the difference between the glossy paint and the dull, sanded area.

Smurf homicide crime scene photo:

3.21.08
- Removed the coin door
- Sanded the remaining areas (around the coin door and beneath the control panel)
- Received original Donkey Kong control panel and marquee in the mail

3.22.08 – 3.23.08 – 3.24.08
- Patched and sanded rebuilt corners
- Patched and sanded remaining dings on the top and back of cabinet
- Patched and sanded back panel
- Sanded and painted marquee brackets
- Sanded coin door
- As of right now, the cabinet should be ready for a coat of primer and paint when it gets warmer
- Placed an order for carriage bolts and cap kits (to refurbish the monitor)

3.26.08
- Finally caught a warm, dry day and pulled the cabinet out side
- I painted the top and upper back with a flat black
- Applied coats of white primer to the cabinet

3.29.08
- Received the order (carriage bolts and cap kits)
- Installed 1 cap kit to my personal Donkey Kong monitor in an attempt to clear up some problems. No luck yet.

3.30.08
- Applied the 3rd and final coat of primer
- The cabinet is now officially ready to paint
- Picked up another Donkey Kong cabinet:
I placed an ad on craigslist a week or 2 ago looking for a Donkey Kong pcb since the ones one eBay are ridiculously priced. Turns out I hit the jackpot and will be picking up an entire working machine for $50. This is probably the second best find of my life next to buying a box of old Kentucky basketball posters and newspapers only to discover a couple of autographed pictures of the 1992 seniors, an autographed Rick Pitino photo, 2 Pat Riley autographed Cats Pause publications and a 1998 team poster signed by the entire team and Tubby Smith. All that came at a total price of $3.71. And to think, I almost passed the box up.

4.4.08
- Removed a chip from the inside of the cabinet, underneath the control panel to be color matched.

4.5.08
- Applied the first 2 coats of “Donkey Kong Blue”

4.6.08
- Applied 2 more coats of paint
- Painted the back panel flat black
- Painted the coin door glossy black
- Placed orders for side art, t-molding, instruction card and sticker and coin sticker

The machine is 99% painted. I still have to do the boards around the bottom and the lower panel on the back. Both will be flat black. Other than that, I need to install the cap kit I ordered and clean out the inside (it’s dusty now).

I have also surpassed my initial estimate of $550 for the entire project. However, I made a good investment buying a complete machine for $50. I will make up the difference when I rebuild (and hopefully sell) my next Donkey Kong cabinet.

4.13.08
I took a few days off but managed some small work. I got back to it today and:
- Painted the boards that were attached to the bottom of the cabinet (not sure what they’re called)
- They were glued on and stapled from the top, but I reattached them by using corner brackets (image below)
- Replaced the original florescent light with a 13″ cabinet light
- Installed the marquee and bezel brackets, the bezel, and the marquee
- Installed the Donkey Kong pcbs
- Installed the monitor
- Installed the coin door
- Loosely installed the control panel. There seems to be a loose cable or bad switch that I need to troubleshoot.

4.14.08
I noticed waviness in the monitor along with some other issues (color, shadows), so I performed a little research. In an unrelated forum thread I found that the waviness problem could be the cause of bad capacitors, interference, or a bad power supply. Since I installed a cap hit already, I could cross that off the list. I unplugged the light and speaker, but nothing changed. Luckily I had another power supply in my personal Donkey Kong machine. So I switched it out and bingo… I have a bad power supply. I’m not sure where to go from here but at least I know where the problem lies.

I also found the schematic for the Sanyo monitor and sifted through it. It’s amazing what you can figure out if you just read. I don’t plan to make a habit of it though. Anyway, I made some adjustments to the color and learned how to fix the red and blue convergence. And, to top it off, I did it all without getting electrocuted.

I decided to not press my luck and stopped there for the day. I have the t-molding on hand, so now I’m just waiting for the side art. It should have been here the same day, but it apparently is floating around somewhere. I already contacted the seller and they said to get back with them Tuesday if it hasn’t shown up. We’ll see how it goes.

4.20.08

- Installed the white t-molding
- Installed the side art
- Reseated everything and made sure there were no loose connections

I am now 95% finished with the project. I’m waiting on a couple more stickers to arrive and I need to do some work to the control panel (couple of patches). Here are some more pictures of the side art installation and the nearly finished project:

5.5.08

The job is done. I added the black poster board inside the cabinet to prevent glare and added the “insert coins” sticker to the front. Here are the final pictures of the project:

And as an added bonus, here is a video of me playing several levels on this very machine. It works great.

5.11.08

Sold! After spending approximately $600, I sold my fully restored Donkey Kong machine for $950. Of course, once I calculate all the time I spent working on it, I would probably be in the red. But, it kept me busy and it was fun, so I’ll take my $350 and be happy.It was fun, a learning experience, and rewarding but it’s over… or is it?

If you’ll look back at 3.30.08, you’ll notice I picked up an entire Donkey Kong machine for $50 when I was only looking for a Donkey Kong board. From that machine I used the board, control panel, and monitor bezel. I found a good deal on ebay for another Donkey Kong board for $97, but it needs about $20 worth of work (missing 2 chips). However, I just need a control panel, monitor bezel, and side art and I’m in business.

So, stay tuned. I will create another page shortly to document the restoration of my second Donkey Kong machine.

5 Comments »

1. [...] DK Project [...]

   Pingback by Projects Update | Dramastic Blog — October 19, 2008 @ 6:46 pm

2. 

   can you tell me where you got the coin door frame at?

   Comment by Michigan Classic Arcade — January 31, 2010 @ 2:11 am

3. 

   The coin door and frame came with the cabinet when I bought it.

   Comment by adhicks — January 31, 2010 @ 10:12 am

4. 

   I am making a DK cabinet from scratch – how is the bezel attached?

   Comment by Andrew — June 30, 2010 @ 3:12 am

5. 

   I’ll try to get some photos for you tonight and send them your way.

   Could you point me to some photos of your progress? I’d like to post them if you don’t mind. Maybe someone else wanting to build a cabinet from scratch would find them useful.

   Comment by adhicks — June 30, 2010 @ 8:45 am

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